


Knight of Blood

by novembermond



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infection, Wounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 21:19:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/872064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novembermond/pseuds/novembermond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being the knight of blood means Karkat is also the medic of the group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knight of Blood

Landing in the Land of Wrath and Angels, Karkat immediately goes for protective shelter. Who knows how many of those horrible creatures are out for his hide after that dumbnut Eridan has enraged them? But no feathery winged assholes appear, so Karkat slowly exhales the breath he’d been holding and goes on to do what he came to do before any angel shows up. He shouldn’t have come. Eridan is probably just being his usual exaggerating self and will only try to convince Karkat to fill a quadrant with him AGAIN. Karkat sighs and enters this stupid ship-castle that Eridan calls his home.

“Fishface? Are you there?”

That thing is way too big for a proper hive. Karkat is totally not jealous of all the space and fine things he finds. They’re tacky, that’s what they are. Who the hell needs a whole room for a settee and a few vases and a tiny table and not much else? Nobody, that’s who. There’s not even a recuperacoon in the room. There is however, one douchebag hipster in the room. He and his cape are draped over the settee in a way that’s probably supposed to look dramatic, but really just looks pathetic. Upon Karkat’s entering Eridan looks up and blinks at him.

“You came!” Are those tears twinkling in his eyes? He’s trying to get Karkat to pity him, isn’t he. Karkat opens his mouth for some ragerambling when he notices that the others face is flushed violet. Instead of shouting at him Karkat sits down on the stupid small table and reaches for Eridan’s forehead. The grey skin is dry and warm to the touch. Karkat is pretty sure a seadweller is not supposed to be warm to the touch. Not that he ever touched a seadweller before, though. Eridan’s face fins are deep violet, too. Almost as if his body tried to cool his blood…

“Alright fuckass, what is wrong with you?”

Eridan shifts until he’s halfway sitting up and reaches for the hem of his sweater.

“Ugh, you realize I’m not going to fill a pail with you, I didn’t come here for…” Karkat’s voice dies off at the sight of Eridan’s chest. There’s a deep slash going over his side, grazing the gills.

“There wwere like three a those damn angels at once an one a them got me wwhile I killed off the other twwo.”

“When?” is all Karkat can say. The wound is most definitely not fresh. It has already scabbed over. But underneath the scabs it is swollen and hot and the color is off. It is not the clear violet Eridan’s blood should be. It is dirty brown, only turning to violet on the outer corners.

“Couple a nights ago. Usually I heal fast, so I wwas simply wwaitin for it to go away.”

It must hurt like a bitch. And Karkat always brushed Eridan’s desperate invitations to visit off, because he thought the seadweller was trying to hit on him. Only the last message had convinced him he should take a look, just to make sure.

**cA: kar are you there**  
 **cA: i really dont feel so good  
** **cG: HOW ABOUT YOU STOP KILLING ANGELS AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR ONCE?**

**-cA is an idle troll now.-**

**cG: ERIDAN?**

“Alright, two things.” Karkat says. “One, fucking stop fighting angels and take your issues out on something that leaves build grist, at least. Two, this is going to hurt. Three, don’t die on me. Okay, I guess that was three things, you have a problem with that!” Karkat reaches for the slits of Eridan’s gills and pulls them apart. Eridan doesn’t do the cool, stoic pain thing. Eridan does the howling, flinching pain thing. He’s such a nookwhiffer. The gills are swollen and oozing brownish liquid. Karkat still doesn’t have any experience with sea dweller bodies, but that can’t be good. That can’t be good at all. Good left the building a few days ago, leaving only well fuck behind.

“Kar, am I going to die?”

“What? No, of course not.”

“It’s just… can you tell Fef I’m sorry…”

“You are NOT going to die, stop being such a wiggler. Where’s your ablution block?”

“Ablution… the _bathroom_ is ovver to that side. Really, Kar a feww manners wwould do you wwonders. ”

“Right. As long as you can care about stupid highblood lingo, you’re surely not dying.” Karkat picks him up, swaying a bit. How can a lanky sea troll be so heavy? He manages to get Eridan to the ablution block just before his arms fall off. He puts him down in front of the ablution trap. “Take your clothes off.”

“Wwhy, Kar, that is vvery forwward a you…”

“Get that right out of your think pan! Are you so desperate to get pailed you’d do it in this condition? Take your fucking clothes off and get in the ablution trap!”

“You think you can order me around, the highest… almost highest…” Eridan grumbles around, but he obeys. Or tries to, rather. He has trouble moving the arm on his infected side. In the end Karkat has to help him struggle out of his clothes of which he wears too many fucking layers. He doesn’t fail to notice the faint scars on Eridan’s wrist, but doesn’t say anything about it. He’d just start screaming in anger and not stop anytime soon so Karkat decides to let it slip for now. Eridan gets into the tub and the water running.

When he is as covered in water as he can be – damn, a highbloods ablution trap is nice and big – Karkat tells him to open his gills. And then he does the bloody thing.

As a SGRUB player, there are all kinds of cool powers Karkat could have gotten. But no, he gets saddled with the most humiliating, infuriating of all. Of course he does. Of course it is Karkat who ends up with the ultimate mockery of power. He could have gotten anything, but he got blood. Knight of Blood, doomed to be constantly reminded of his own freaky candy color blood, doomed to play the medic for his hopeless group of players who are unable to go even a night without injury. The bunch of grubfuckers surely only do it to annoy him.

The clear water slowly turns into muddy brown as the infection gets flushed out of Eridan’s body. The sea troll has the gall to float limply in the ablution trap, as if he were the one to do all the work here. Karkat blinks owlishly, trying to get his wits together. This shit drains him like nobody’s business, but he cannot afford to fall asleep. He pulls the plug and lets the dirty water drain out while showering the sea dweller clean. The wound looks better, but nowhere near healed. The violet is still tainted brown. Karkat realizes he has to do this again at least once. Fuckass. As if he hasn’t got enough to do already.

He gets Eridan awake enough to down a glass of water before he drags him to the recuperacoon. Maybe the slime will help some more. Karkat sinks to the floor next to the recuperacoon. He holds his face in his hands. So. Tired. His husktop pings. A new trollian message.

**tC: HeY MoThErFuCkInG BeSt fRiEnD.**  
 **tC: NoT To gEt yOuR BoThEr oN, bUt tHaT StAbBy fRiEnD Of yOuRs gOt hIs sTaB On.**  
 **tC: TaVbRo wAs oVeR AnD KiNdA FrEaKeD At tHe mOtHeRfUcKiNg rAiNbOw mIrAcLe cAuSe oF ThE StAbBy tHiNg.**  
 **tC: ThAt iS AlL.  
** **cG: YOU ARE A BUNCH OF INCOMPETENT NOOKLICKERS.**  
 **cG: SEE HOW MUCH I CARE WHEN YOU BLEED TO DEATH!**

After some constructive head against the wall banging, Karkat leaves a note for Eridan:  
COMING BACK AS SOON AS I CAN. DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID. SCRATCH THAT, DON'T DO ANYTHING, PERIOD.

Then he leaves for the Land of Tents and Mirth. They’re hopeless idiots, but they’re his hopeless idiots.


End file.
